The three mobile phone service providers in the country have effected the 15% Excise Duty on airtime in compliance with the Customs and Excise amendment Act of 2013.
This means that tariffs on calls and other mobile phone services have been increased.
GSM Operators Association of Zambia Chairman Abdul Ishmail says as service providers in the country, they are required to collect Excise Duty as required and on behalf of the Zambian government.
Mr Ismail in a statement issued to media said that the adjustment came into effect on 1st January 2014.
Mr. Ismail who is also MTN Zambia Chief Executive Officer, adds that all the three mobile phone service providers will maintain their recharge voucher prices.
saaaaataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
we have been fcuked again
Its now the tax payers paying for his reckless spending! !
How can these people in gov’t claim to be stimulating employment in the private sector when the cost of doing business in the country is ever increasing ….don’t they know that communication is a vital part of business for SMEs and other larger businesses. Its no surprise that we are not making strides in the ICT sector because of such retrogressive policies.
Not too long ago, we rebased our currency by lopping off three zeros therefrom. With the current state of the economy. I see these zero climbing back very very soon!
This is one of the best fiscal policy the govt, has ever implemented. People shud stop criticising, things they they don’t undrstnd. Tax is one way of trying to distribute resources equally.
Viva Sata!
Don’t you know that mobile phone subscribers in Zambia were paying high tariffs even before the excise was increased for appalling services. Tax has to be strategic and smart you do not just tax anyhow.
RB, typical of sata’s advisers. whats this noise you are making about resource distribution, to whom? i think you are economically illiterate and saying things you yourself don’t understand. a good tax system must be fair and reasonable, it should provide incentive for economic growth. you well know that many firms in Zambia are still in the developing stages, how the hell do you think there are going to survive when govt is busy increasing costs. communication is vital for SME development. mind you, they are the largest privet sector employers.how do you increase employment like this? at this stage the ability of the govt to redistribute resources is highly questionable, and so is there borrowing.
More Money for induced bye-elections.
Our colleagues in Kenya have removed duty on smartphone handsets and other internet hardware as they understand importance of communication and stimulating in economic growth whereas we are doing the exact opposite here given that two thirds of the population are unemployed youth.
It’s no wonder innovative SMS money transfer solutions in Kenya have been a success especially for farmers in the rural areas.
raise it to 30%. Most pipo are just calling their girlfriends hahahahahahahah yaaaaba
good indeed
it just doesn’t make sense! this is the information age where a country or person with more info or knowledge gets richer and effective. what we are supposed to do is increasing the availability of information to all people through incentives, but here is a policy that deliberately disincentive knowledge acquisition! all in the name of financing stupid and selfish pursuits. this government promised to increase people’s income, but it has so fur managed to grab the most income from people through removal of subsidies and introduction of funny taxes and fees like this one! prices are going up as a result and yet those funny chaps from CSO says inflation is steady! this is bad politics!
Spot on! !
More money in your pockets, or is it?
I personally do not have problems with taxes; my concern is how the collected monies are utilised. Is the money diligently invested to benefit all the people, or is it misused and only benefit a few? If the latter is the case then there is something terribly wrong in our land and this situation leads to tax evasion, corruption and other anti-development vices as people take shortcuts because they know that even if they obliged with regards to taxes etc, the health care system, schools and other generative sectors will remain unattended. For my own conscious any way, I try to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do any way.